BEIJING / FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products (300601.SZ) will produce the possible COVID-19 AstraZeneca Plc (AZN) vaccine. L) in mainland China, British pharmaceutical company said Thursday, its first agreement with one of the countries with the largest population.
The agreement underscores Astra’s leadership position in a career to deliver an effective vaccine, as Chinese corporations lead at least 8 of the 26 vaccine progression projects that are being tested in humans lately.
According to the agreement, Shenzhen Kangtai, one of China’s leading vaccine manufacturers, will have an annual production capacity of at least one hundred million doses of the azD1222 experimental vaccine, which AstraZeneca jointly developed with researchers at the University of Oxford, until the end of this year, AstraZeneca said.
The Shenzhen-based company will have to have the ability to produce at least two hundred million doses until the end of next year as a component of the exclusive framework agreement, its site said on Chinese social media WeChat.
The two corporations will also explore cooperation on the vaccine candidate in other markets, AstraZeneca said.
They responded to requests for additional comments.
There are no approved vaccines that oppose COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory disease through coronavirus.
AstraZeneca has signed production agreements worldwide, adding in the United States, Great Britain, South Korea and Brazil, with the purpose of producing more than 2 billion doses of the vaccine.
For China, this is another major agreement to ensure that a COVID-19 vaccine evolved through a foreign company as other prospective injections from the emerging country bring the human trial phase in the past.
Other collaborations between Chinese and Western players come with a merger between Germany’s BioNTech (BNTX). Fosun (600196.SS) (2196.HK), as well as a merger between Inovio Pharma (INO). O) and Beijing Advaccine Biotechnology.
The rush to find remedies and vaccines to prevent the pandemic has fueled the movements of global pharmaceutical companies, namely those in China.
Shenzhen Kangtai’s market price rose by nearly 90% to about $20 billion over the following month, and inventories reached record levels on Tuesday. Shenzhen-listed inventory fell 10% on Thursday.
In 2019, the company, whose main products are hepatitis B, flu, measles and rubella vaccines, made a profit of 259.8 million yuan ($37.4 million) in sales of 1.94 billion yuan.
Reporting through the Hong Kong Press Room; Written through Josephine Mason; Editing via Kevin Liffey / Jan Harvey / Jane Merriman
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